Is Jesus Really the Only Way to God?
John 14:1-7
(If you feel this sermon is helpful, you are welcome to visit www.danachau.com for a free online course.)
We continue this morning with our apologetics series with the question, Is Jesus really the only way to God? In our culture of tolerance and pluralism, the claim of the only way sounds narrow and closed-minded. Limiting at best. Maybe even arrogant.
There is a classic story of a pastor giving a message during children's church. He started out by saying, "I'm going to describe something, and I want you to raise your hand when you know what it is." The children nodded eagerly.
"This thing lives in trees and eats nuts (pause)..." No hands went up. "And it is gray and has a long bushy tail (pause)..." The children looked at each other. Finally one little boy raised his hand. "Well," said the boy, "I *know* the answer must be Jesus ... but it sure sounds like a squirrel to me!"
In the church we're expected to answer "Jesus" for many spiritual questions, but do we really know why? Is Jesus really the only way to God? What about other religions? Islam. Hinduism. Buddhism. Judaism. Are other religions wrong?
What about those who say all religions have basically the same idea but with different names. Or, those who say that all religions lead to the same God. How would you respond? If you were not in church?
A Christian I talked with recently had romantic feelings for a Muslim man. She asked if the Christian God and the Muslim God were the same God. Because emotions were involved, I gently suggested she ask the Muslim man whether his God came in the form of a man to die on the cross to restore us to Himself.
If all religions lead to the same God, why would the same God have different requirements in order to come to Him? In a way there are only two kinds of requirements. First is that of the Christian God who requires us to trust in His effort through Jesus' death on the cross. Second is that of all the other religions' gods who require us to make our own efforts to have a right relation with the gods.
Christianity says the way to God relies on what God has done on the cross. All other religions say the way to God relies on what we must do in this life. Knowing this
difference is important, but it doesn't answer the question, Is Jesus really the only way to God? So let's take some time to answer this question. Our first text is John 14:1-7 (READ).
Verse 6 is Jesus' answer to the question, Is Jesus really the only way to God? He says, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father [God] except through me."
Jesus says He is the way for people to come to God the Father. He is the truth: What He says is reliable. And He is the life: True life is life in relationship with God.
Let's look at some reasons to believe why Jesus is really the only way to God. First is because of who Jesus was. Second is because of what Jesus did.
Who was Jesus? He was the Son of Man. This was a title Jesus used for himself many times in the Gospel records. He is God come in the form of a man. So, Son of Man.
Two reasons for God to come in the form of a man. First, so mankind could understand the love that God wanted to communicate. If God wanted to communicate His love for birds, He would have come as a bird and chirped. He didn't. He came as a man to communicate His love for mankind.
Second, so the penalty for mankind's sin could be paid. In the OT, animal sacrifice was only a symbol of the shedding of blood required for the forgiveness of man's sin. In reality only the shedding of man's blood is sufficient for the forgiveness of man's sin. That's why God had to come as man.
Romans 5:8 reads, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Who was Jesus? He was also the Son of God. This was a title Jesus used for himself in the Gospel records also. The Bible reveals the one true God exists as three Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And Jesus is the second person of God, the Son of God.
We're tempted to ask, "How can One God exist in three Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit?" But we're not tempted to ask, "How can one spider have 8 legs?" This is because we expect God to be like us but we don't expect a spider to be like us. But God is not like us.
Why is it important that Jesus is the Son of Man and the Son of God? As the Son of Man, Jesus' death is the true payment for the sin of man. As the Son of God, Jesus' death is the total payment for the sin of all mankind. If Jesus were only a man, his death would only be sufficient to pay for one man's sin. Because he was the Son of Man and Son of God, his death is sufficient to pay for all men's sin.
Here's what else. Jesus was sinless in life. Had Jesus sinned, His death would have paid for Himself alone. But because He had no sin, His death could pay for mankind's sin and restore us to God. 1 John 3:5 tells us, "You know that [Jesus] appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin."
If Jesus were not the sinless Son of God come in the form of man to die on the cross as payment for mankind's sin, Christianity would be like other DIY religions. But because Jesus is the sinless Son of God come in the form of man to die on the cross as payment for mankind's sin, He is really the sure way to God.
We're looking at some reasons to believe why Jesus is really the only way to God. First is because of who Jesus was. Second is because of what Jesus did. What He did as the wisdom of God, the power of God and the resurrection to life.
First, what Jesus did as the wisdom of God.
Richard Dawkins, University of Oxford professor and author of the God Delusion, would say that the cross of Jesus Christ is foolishness rather than wisdom. He wrote, “I have described atonement (God’s method of restoring mankind to Himself through the death of Jesus on the cross), the central doctrine of Christianity, as vicious, sado-masochistic and repellent…. If God wanted to forgive our sins, why not just forgive them, without himself tortured and executed in payment….”
That sounds like a wise alternative. A noble one. Just forgive. Try telling that to the judge presiding over small claim to Grand Jury. Just forgive. Try telling that to the
God who sees mankind violating each other everyday. Just forgive. So how does God, the righteous Judge of all, dispense love and justice without one denying the other?
Scott Bader-Saye, Professor of Theological Ethics, said, “Certainly a love that denies justice is a farce, but so is justice which does not love.”
This is the message of the cross: God came in the person of Jesus Christ to die on the cross as payment for the sins of mankind. So the cross demonstrates love without ignoring justice. And justice without ignoring love. The cross separates the sin from the sinner and restores mankind to God. That is the wisdom of the cross.
Second, what Jesus did as the power of God.
Some have a problem believing in God because God doesn’t show His power the way they want power to manifest. They see a belief in God makes mankind passive.
Karl Marx labeled religion as “the opium of the masses.” To Marx, religion was a wickedly comforting business. It provided excuses for keeping society the way the oppressors like them. Marx mainly accused Christianity.
And that is the fatal flaw of Marx’s theory of religion. Christianity does not produce passivity. Christianity inspires transformation. “God loves us just the way we are, but He loves us too much to leave us the way He found us.”
Marx called for a revolution against the oppressors; Christ called for a revolution within the oppressors. Not a change of power, but a change of life. What Marxism and Communism failed to do, Christianity has repeatedly done.
The late Chuck Colson, of Prison Fellowship, tells about a prison in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, which was turned over to two Christians more than twenty years ago. It is run according to Christian principles. The prison only has two people on its staff. The inmates do everything else.
Each prisoner has another to whom he is accountable. Every prisoner goes to chapel or takes a course in character formation. Each prisoner is assigned to a volunteer family outside the prison that makes him a part of their family. The rate of return for
crimes after release is 4% compared to 75% in other Brazilian prisons.
When Colson visited the prison to discover the secret of their success, a prisoner took him to what at one time was an isolation cell. When they got there, the prisoner asked Colson if he wanted to go in. He said, "Yes."
When the door opened, Colson saw a beautifully carved wooden figure of Jesus hanging on the cross. The prisoner pointed to the figure of Jesus and whispered, "He’s doing time for all of us."
William Barclay wrote, “The cross is the proof that there is no length to which the love of God will refuse to go, in order to win men’s hearts. The cross is the medium of reconciliation because the cross is the final proof of God’s love, and a love that demands love. If the cross will not waken love and wonder in men’s hearts, nothing will.”
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:18 and 25, “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God…. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength.”
God’s love can transform the human heart. And as the human heart changes, so changes the world. Through a revolution of the heart, not a revolution of the state. That is the power of the cross.
Third, what Jesus did as the resurrection to life.
Every religious leader who lived died or will die. But only one said he would come back to life and did. And over 500 people at different locations on different days saw him alive soon after his crucifixion, death and burial.
And here's what else He said He will do for those who believe in Him: "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God;[a] believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also (John 14:1-3)."
Is Jesus really the only way to God? Yes, because Jesus knows the way to God because He is the way to God because He is God.
I want to close by briefly answering two other questions that naturally follow: if Jesus is really the only way to God, then what about all the other religions? And what about those who have not heard about Jesus?
Regarding other religions, I believe they are human attempts to know God because God has put in all of our hearts a craving to know Him. Ecclesiastes 3:11b reads, "Also, [God] has put eternity into man's heart, yet so that [man] cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end."
Without the Bible and Jesus Christ, the craving for God drives people to look to fallen creation and conscience for answers. The search for God may be sincere. But not all religions are equally true.
Regarding those who have not heard about Jesus, how do they come to a right relationship with God? Sometime ago, I talked to a college student who newly put His trust in Jesus to have peace with God. When he told his dad, his dad asked him a good question. The question was this: "How were people justified (or made right with God) before Jesus died on the cross? And how can people who never hear of Jesus be justified (or made right with God)?"
Paul answers those questions in Romans 5:1, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith." Justified by trusting God to pay for what we could not.
Paul speaking of how Abraham, who lived thousands of years before Jesus, could be justified before God. Romans 4:5, "However, to the man who does not work but trusts God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness."
In other words, if a person trusts God to pay for them, even if they don't know that God paid through Jesus on the cross, the person can be justified (or made right with God).
(If you feel this sermon is helpful, you are welcome to visit www.danachau.com for a free online course.)
